On BBC News; I heard the story of Banksy’s New York art sale. Quickly, I went online to authenticate the story; got the link and emailed it to myself for further read.

Not a lot of people may know the Bristol boy called Banksy, but for those that are used to graffiti arts, he is one of the most popular artists in the world. Some of Banksy’s arts sell for hundreds of thousands of dollars, which made him an enviable artist to so many of his colleagues. It is obvious from the cost of his works that only the rich can afford buying his arts. Banksy’s arts were fortunes; they were goldmines. So, for anyone to own his arts meant that he had treasures in his house.

A couple of days before writing this article, something happened in the Central Park of New York. Banksy, disguised, set up an unmarked stall selling his original artwork for $60 each. People were walking pass without realising that he was the one. For hours, he couldn’t sell a single item. The first sale he made was at 3.30pm when a lady bought two small canvases for her children after negotiating a 50% discount. The second sale was made at 4.00pm; a lady from New Zealand bought two canvases, while the last sale was made at 5.30pm when a Chicago man bought four artworks to hang on his newly decorated wall at home. The shop closed at 6.00pm with only a total sale of $420 for items that may worth hundreds of thousands of dollars. Due to ignorance, many, who saw the shop and one of the modern day greatest artists, could not take advantage of a huge opportunity of becoming instantly wealthy!

When the word ignorance is used, its real meaning doesn’t really dawn on you until you realise that it means to ignore. There are many things we’ve ignored that we shouldn’t have, so, on the long run, they come back to haunt us. Many times, we’re insensitive to where we are, or to our environments; we hardly notice change. Because of lack of notice or insensitivity to change, we lose out on the privileges that just bumped in. Many privileges or opportunities that bump in are mainly one-offs; they hardly or never come back. Even if they do, they assume different shapes and dimensions. There is also a type of ignorance that goes too far; it is called under-minding the uncelebrated. Banksy posed like an ordinary unknown New York street artist; he was under-minded because he didn’t appear like a celebrity. On our streets, are so many people with multiple goldmines, but we under-mind them because they don’t belong. Talents loom in the world of the unknown; only that ignorance makes it difficult to unravel.

Do you know that it is possible to walk through treasure and not recognise it? Do you know that it is possible to have a gold field in your backyard and not realise it? Many people saw Banksy’s arts but couldn’t make it to the bank because they weren’t conscious of what was before them. An unconscious man may see things but unaware of the values. To have a value added life, consciousness is a major key. Ignorance blindfolds consciousness, and makes it sleep till the goodies are all gone.

To avoid ignorance, the hunger for knowledge is a valuable key. The word knowledge scares a lot of people because they tie it to some academic empirical and mathematical formulas. But simply, knowledge means knowing what to do in a specific circumstance. A man who wants to move from one end of town to another must know the quickest and least expensive way to get there. The one without knowledge will spend more time and money getting there, or sometimes, may never get there; knowing makes life easy and better.

Some people who walked through New York Central Park actually knew that the canvases were Banksy’s arts, but made an assumption that they were copied versions. For those with knowledge, hasty assumption is a profound limitation to success. Assumption makes knowledge not to take a chance. In life, business, academics and career, we must be willing to take chances even if the risks may be sometimes high. Somehow, the gains of risk taking far outweigh the cost of idleness. So, take a chance.

It is not debatable that the world’s greatest enemy is ignorance. It kills faster than the worst virus; in fact, it is the world’s most dangerous virus. Anywhere you find it, kill it. Success is inevitable where ignorance is absent. You were born to succeed; don’t let ignorance stop you!

•SUCCESS FACTOR appears fortnightly on Wednesdays. The Columnist, Kenneth Nkemnacho, is a popular London-based motivational writer and YAHOO Contributor. Tjis article first appeared on his blog, http://successinks.com. Kenneth can be reached via kenneth@kennethvisionmedia.com or publisher@newsexpressngr.com

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